The Press., 1887-09-01
~ (For The Press.)
 OLDEN TIMES.

walk with friend along an old road in the eastern part of Stafford. Narrow, rough, and in places no better than a cart path through the woods, much of it was eyi- dently. but little used. Here and there were fields of grass and evidences of form CT cultivation and care. Where once had been house, stood diminutive hut ap- parently unoccupied, and on the opposite side of the road was an old barn. These were the only buildings along the distance of about mile. Yet in this distance are five house spots, and at least three of these were once inhabited at the same time. l call to mind another case ill nearly the same part of the town. Within a circle of about mile in diameter there are no less than eight places where houses formerly stood, while at least three of these were standing and occupied at one time. Now there is only one house on the whole area, and this was built about sixty years ago, near by and in place of one of the eight just mentioned. l suppose that these two cases are examples of a multitude of simi- lar ones in the rural districts throughout the state. It looks very much as if many regions, once well inhabited, would some. time in the near future become a wilder ness, when perhaps again the settler will come, and build his cabin, and clean his fields, and SOW his grain. When the cities and the new land of the west shall be fill ed, may it not happen that the tide ol emigration will turn to the east again?
 As the years go by and the old lnhabit. ants pass away, the early history of these regions becomes dim. Who dug these cellars? Who gathered the stones and enclosed these fields with walls now twist ed and tumbling? Who planted these or chards, whose broken tops and decaying branches still mark the hillsides? Who were the people that settled on these hills long ago. when the country was new Only a few traditions remain, and these are growing less year by year.
 The extreme northeast division of Staf ford is known as the Hall district. Its children of school age number only about a dozen now. Once this district was one of the foremost in the town. At its school house gathered large number of pupils, and it's population was several times what it is now. It is our purpose to take a ram bling view of this district in olden times.
 Probably no one can tell what band oi settlers first broke these solitudes, or when the woodman's ax was first heard over these hills. Probably no one knows when school was first opened here, when the district first took it's present limits, ol when it received it's name.
 Over a hundred years ago there was g family of at least eight persons near the spot where Ira Bradway now resides. The parents names weresEphraim and Hannah Hall. The children were three boys, Ju' dah, Levi and John, and three girls, Sally Lydia and Hannah. These married, and Judah and Levi resided in the limits ol fhn 1ictrioh o lima and 1ab and Hannah all their lives. It is easy, and probably correct, to conclude thai from this family the district received its name.
 About hundred years ago there was a school in little leg school-house a short distance northeast of where Ephraim Hall then lived. Possibly then the district, even if marked out and called a district, had boundaries quite different from those that it had somewhat later, or those that it now has. The position of the little log school-hou so near the Massachusetts line, and the tradition of a school some time in the dim past, at a place on the north side of Ferry hill, associated with the name of Crouch and near the line of the present district, would suggest this. When school was first taught where the present school-house stands I cannot say. About sixty five years ago school-house was there, so old that 1t was moved away at that time from its foundations, and an other one built in it's place.
 The old hool-house, built perhaps from eighty to one hundred years ago, is described by one who attended school there for a short time. It was a small un- painted building. Within, around three sides of the school room, desks were fast ened to the sides, so that the pupils seated at them must face the walls. The seats were movable benches without backs, and held up by four or six legs. In the fourth side of the room was large fire place. In this small room were sixty or seventy pu- pills, uncomfortably crowded, while, in the winter, those near the sides of the room were shivering, and those near the fire were very hot. The plan of the new school-house was an improvement on the old. Around three sides of the school room and on platforms of different eleva. tion were two rows of desks with stationary seats facing the middle of the room. Be low and nearer the middle of the room an, other row of seats extended round. The middle of the room was left vacant.
 Taking about the time when the new school Lhouse was built, not far from 1922 or sixty-five years ago, as fixed and con venient period, we will try to make rapid survey of the district as 1t WAS then, some times, however, glancing further back ward, when we can, and then again notic ing events of nearer date.
 We have already spoken of the house where Ephraim Hall lived. This had given place to another built near by not far from ninety years ago-the house, tho much changed since, in which Ira Brad way now resides. dere lived John Hall.
 On the road north, not far from the state line, was an old house, which was re- placed by a new one several years after. Some years ago this latter one was moved to a spot a little south of the school-house. In this Charles Sears now lives. Who lived in the old house sixty-five years ago I cannot say. Possibly it was a family by the name of Gale, which, according tC tradition, lived there sometime in the faI past. Perhaps it was Roswell Needham, who was residing there some years later Still later Leonard Gale lived there for g while.
 About a half mile southwest of where John Hall lived stood an old house on g road running east and west. A family by the name of Van Sands lived there. John Eaton had lived there some thirty years before. His wife, Molly, died there near lY a hundred years ago. The stone that marks her grave in the little cemetery within the district bears the earliest date of all the inscriptions. Tradition indicates that even before John Eaton lived there the place was associated with the name oi